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GM slips to second place
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August 5, 1998: 1:42 p.m. ET
Strike-plagued carmaker says July sales fell 37%, market share to 20%
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - General Motors Corp. Wednesday reported a 37 percent decline in U.S. vehicle sales in July, confirming it lost the No. 1 ranking to Ford Motor Co.
The Detroit automaker said total car sales, including Saab, plunged 45 percent to 130,472, and total truck sales dropped 28 percent to 130,668. GM's total vehicle sales for the month were 261,140, including heavy trucks.
Due to the crippling 54-day strikes by the United Auto Workers, GM's July sales translated to 20.8 percent of the U.S. market, according to an industry report. Ford and Chrysler Corp. registered market shares of 27.6 percent and 16.7 percent, respectively.
The last time Ford led in monthly sales was December 1970, when GM was also affected by a lengthy strike.
In July 1997, GM had 30.8 percent of the market, Ford 26.2 percent, and Chrysler 14.8 percent.
And with none of the Big Three garnering more than 30 percent, the door was left wide open for international competitors to capture more of the U.S. market.
Asian automakers last month aggregated 29.6 percent of the market, a 5 point jump from their 24.7 percent a year earlier. Europeans' share increased to 5.2 percent from 3.5 percent.
"Toyota and Honda are certainly on a hot streak this year as well as the Europeans," said Bill Seltenheim, vice president of Autodata Corp., an automotive consulting firm.
But other analysts also warned not to draw too much of a conclusion from the skewed sales figures.
"I'm not sure how significant that is because these warped market shares were caused by the strike that is now over," said David Healy, analyst at Burnham Securities.
While the stronger dollar did sway some consumers toward favorably priced overseas models, Healy explained the strike played a greater impact on July sales.
GM's marketing chief, Ronald Zarrella, said the company expects to regain the sales momentum it had before June but added August sales will continue to feel the effect of the strikes.
"Although we expect August to be a tough month, we are filling the pipeline plus launching advertising and marketing initiatives that will give consumers the message that we have the best products at the best prices," Zarrella said.
Burnham's Healy predicted results will return to normal by September. 
-- from staff and wire reports
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